Outside Shengjing City.

Li Zhaoji met an envoy sent by the Manchu Qing in the treasury of the Oriental Brigade, a woman named Su Mo'er, who in later generations had a more well-known name - Su Malagu.

Su Mo'er, who is in her thirties, is the personal maid of the Empress Dowager, but she is not an ordinary cloth slave, she is smart and studious, and she has also participated in the ceremonial affairs of determining the Manchu crown and clothing system.

Li Zhaoji circled around her, as if he was looking at the woman's figure, but in fact, he smelled the smell of her, it was rumored that Aunt Su Mala had taken a bath three times in her life, and Li Zhaoji was curious if she would have the smell of sauerkraut jar.

But obviously, Li Zhaoji was disappointed, Su Mo'er was able to serve in and out of the palace, so she naturally paid attention to hygiene, but paying attention to hygiene and bathing could not be directly linked.

"How much silver has your master brought you, and how much is it going to give me?" Li Zhaoji sat on the silver box and asked lightly.

"My master didn't let me bring silver, but if you are willing to stop fighting and retreat, my lord is willing to give another 500,000 taels of silver." Su Mo'er said in a positive voice.

Li Zhaoji nodded: "Is it a little less, the three families of the Han Dynasty will give 500,000 taels, is it possible that Shengjing City is only worth this price?" Two million taels! ”

"It's too much, my lord, your ambitions are too great. I need to remind you that this time it is just a private cooperation between the Aixin Jueluo royal family and you, and it has nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty. The wealth we can draw on is limited to the Qing court and a few clans that love Xinjueluo. Su Mo'er said.

"Really? I have a way to get all of the Eight Flags involved. Li Zhaoji said with a smile, he snapped his fingers, and a personal entourage came in, Li Zhaoji wrote down an order and handed it to his personal entourage: "Go and send it to the artillery chief Zhou Shui."

Su Mo'er, go back and tell your master, I want two million taels of silver. I will give you twenty days to raise money, and send me 100,000 taels a day, and I don't want one or two more, and one or two less, and it will not work.

Go ahead! ”

Li Zhaoji didn't give Su Mo'er a chance to bargain at all, and directly asked her to send her away.

In the room, Tang Mu frowned and said, "Why did the Manchu Qing send a slave girl?" ”

Li Zhaoji said: "In order to reduce the price, Su Mo'er was a slave girl, and Bumu Butai and Zierharang tried to make us think that this peace was a private contact between a small number of Manchu nobles in order to save their interests and face. Therefore, it is not possible to let the official people come. ”

"It seems like that's the past, isn't that so?"

Li Zhaoji shook his head: "Definitely not, Tang Mu." We made two deals on the return of relatives through the two white flags of Ban Zhifu and Dolgon, and returned more than 400 women and children, and received 170,000 taels of silver.

Theoretically, after our bombardment of the city wall, at least two people with white flags will come and contact us. But they didn't, obviously, Su Mo'er represented all of the Eight Banners this time, not just the Aixin Jueluo family.

They behave like this in order to lower the price, after all, Aixin Jueluo can only adjust the wealth of the palace and the palace, and if it represents the Eight Banners, I will collect money according to the whole city of Shengjing. ”

Tang Mu nodded slightly, and Li Zhaoji suddenly patted his head and said, "Tang Mu, you immediately go and catch up with Su Mo'er, find a reason, and ask me for Luckdhun's family." ”

"Yes, I'll do it right away."

Yongfu Palace.

Standing in the Yongfu Palace, you can hear the whole city of Shengjing entering a hustle and bustle, columns of smoke rising in the sky, women and children crying in the streets, men organizing all forces to extinguish the fire, but flames continue to appear all over the city.

"That Li Zhaoji gave a new order to his artillery in front of me, and immediately after, a fire broke out in Shengjing City." Su Mo'er galloped back all the way, panting, and said to the Queen Mother.

An old man on crutches banged on the floor and said, "Could it be that the thieves have sent spies to the city, Zilharang, if you want to arrest all the Nikans, they must be setting fires." ”

"Prince Li, now that the soldiers of the Eight Banners are guarding the city, we still have to count on these Nikans to put out the fire. If someone deliberately set the fire, then why didn't the Nancheng area catch fire, only the rest of the city caught fire? Zilharan simply refuted Daishan's order.

At this time, Sonny ran in, he carried a wooden bucket, and said: "Master, the two princes, it's not a small mess, it's the East thief who set fire to it with artillery. As he spoke, Sonny pointed to the cannonball in the bucket: "This is the cannonball that the Oriental thieves used to set fire." ”

Fu Lin was young and curious, so he ran upside down, looked at the cannonball under the water, and reached out to take it, but Sonny immediately stopped him, but his hand was very fast, and when his hand touched the water, he immediately retracted and blew his slightly reddened fingers, and Fu Lin said: "Sonny Bakshi, why is the water in here hot." ”

Zilharang kicked down the bucket, and the cannonball rolled out, and Zilharang flicked it with the scabbard, and found that the cannonball was only slightly deformed, but there were no holes, and said: "Sony, what's the situation, this is not a flowering shell, how can you set it on fire?" ”

"A couple of Nikans saw the shell fall on a pile of hay, and then the hay landed," Sonny said.

The minions ordered the fire to be extinguished, and the cannonball was pulled out of the hay, and the water was poured on it, and it creaked. I think it was the thieves who burned the shells and fired them in with artillery. ”

Dai Shan said angrily: "Nonsense here, wouldn't a hot shell explode immediately when it encounters gunpowder?" How do you fill it with ammo? ”

Zilharang shook his head: "The Eastern Thieves can't be guessed by common sense, they always have some strange things that we don't know about. ”

Sony was right, the shell, which Lee called a molten bomb, was used by the Navy during the attack on the Japanese port of Hirado. It is to use a stove to burn the cannonballs red.

When loading, the powder bag is first loaded, then a wood-made spacer is inserted, a wet mud cake is inserted, and then a red-hot cannonball is loaded, and then the fire is fired.

In the cities of this era, most of the buildings were wooden buildings, and the cities were full of flammable materials, so this kind of shells could ignite many things, and they were not easy to extinguish, and they needed to be cooled down with a lot of water.

Bumu Butai said, "This is the warning of the Dongfan thief to us.

It's just that Bengong doesn't understand a little, why does he only need 100,000 taels a day, more than not, less can't? ”

The kings and ministers looked at each other, Dai Shan shook his head, Zilharang was thoughtful, and finally Sonny said: "Queen Mother, the slave thinks that the Dongfan thief is testing us. ”

"What's the reason, you can tell me more details."

Sonny said: "Although the Dongfan thieves are attacking Shengjing now, we also have soldiers and horses on the left. The latest news is that Bolo's soldiers have already crossed Tieling, and as long as they find an opportunity and are sure that they are safe, they can enter the city to assist in defense. When Abatai heard that Shengjing was trapped, he also galloped north, and had already passed Liaoyang.

Only Prince Yu, who had been assisting the Nikans in building pontoon bridges, and had to act with the red-coated cannons of the Han army flag, never went north.

But the eastern thieves are also afraid, afraid that our main force will suddenly assemble and besiege its headquarters.

That's why there is this method, he wants 100,000 taels a day, and when we don't give it one day, it means that there are two points, there are already enough defenders in the city, and I am not afraid of him attacking. Or the main force of Prince Yu has also arrived, and the Qing Dynasty can confront it without losing money.

This can also be regarded as a conspiracy, forcing us to urge reinforcements from all walks of life to arrive and chaos the strategy of the prince. ”

100,000 taels of silver a day, for Baqi, is a lot of pressure. Even if Bumu Butai has such a heart, the Aixin Jueluo family can't support it for a few days, so they can only make up with the Eight Banners of the whole city. But the question is why everyone pooled this money, instead of destroying their homes to relieve difficulties, why didn't they let reinforcements from all walks of life enter the city at a speed to assist in defense?

Duoduo could withstand the pressure of Qibu Butai and Zilharang, but the pressure of all the nobles of the Eight Banners was unbearable.

This is also a dignified conspiracy, the Manchus can not give it, but Li Zhaoji will inevitably attack the city and go into the city to get it himself. Not to mention the siege of the city, it was just throwing molten bombs into the city every day and setting it on fire, and the Manchu high-level could not bear it.

"The current situation is quite bad for us." Although Dai Shan was old, he was far from being dim, and he said in a deep voice, ordering someone to open the map.

Dai Shan said: "The news given by Wu Sangui is that there is a Shun army serving under the command of the Dongfan Thieves, with at least 3,000 cavalry. And this makes up for the biggest disadvantage of the East Fan thief. We don't know where this cavalry is, only the men of Abatai have encountered them in the area of Haicheng.

I think they have already arrived outside Shengjing City, or are about to arrive. But the situation is not in our favor.

The nearest reinforcement was Bolo's department, who had only 2,000 horsemen, and if he forced his way into the city to help defend it, he might be strangled by the combined efforts of the Dongfan thieves and the cavalry of the Shun army.

Abatai came from the north, but he was the farthest away and would certainly not be able to reach it in time. And our only hope is Duoduo, and only when he arrives can Shengjing be saved. But the problem is that we can only keep Shengjing, let a group of unknown pirates raid our hometown, kill so many people, and then leave safely?

This was a humiliation of Manchuria and a humiliation of the Qing Dynasty.

We should keep the Dongfan thieves on the basis of keeping Shengjing and kill them all. If there is such an opportunity, it doesn't matter if we give Li Zhaoji 1 million or 2 million, anyway, when we win, the money will come back! ”

"You mean, to meet Li Zhaoji's request, paralyze him, and let Duoduo lead the army to encircle?" Zilharang asked.

Dai Shan put down his crutches and said lightly: "I'm old, and you always say that the Dongfan thief is different from the Ming army. I don't know how to defeat them, it's up to you. ”

Sonny squatted on the ground and looked at the map, his hand pointed at the Yellow Muddy Castle in the lower reaches of the Hunhe River, and said, "Here, the minion thinks the key is here." ”

When everyone's eyes came, Sonny boldly said: "The soldiers and horses of the prince of Abatai should be allowed to go north to occupy and control this place, collect ships and materials, and build a pontoon bridge here." After letting Prince Yu's soldiers and horses cross the Liao River, do not support Shengjing, but cross the Hunhe River again to cut off the retreat of the eastern thieves.

Or, go to Shengjing first and cover the Boluo Department to enter the city to assist in defense. Then look for an opportunity to cross the Hunhe River. ”

The people present, many of whom had fought old battles, immediately understood what Sony meant.

As long as Shengjing has enough defensive strength, then the Eastern Brigade will definitely not attack Shengjing again, but choose to retreat, retreating all the way to Haicheng to join the friendly army, and need to cross the two big rivers of Hunhe and Taizi River in a row, as well as four or five small rivers.

As long as the cavalry continues to harass and intercept, the retreat of the Eastern Brigade will definitely be much slower. And the Han army banner can cross the Liao River and the Hunhe River in succession under the cover of Abatai, seize the front of the Eastern Brigade, and enter the Liaoyang area.

This means that you can take advantage of the flat terrain around Liaoyang, force the Eastern Brigade to form a foot formation with cavalry, and then use the red cannons to blast out the large formation, and then achieve victory.

"What do you think?" Dai Shan asked.

Zilharan said, "I'm afraid that Dodor will have other thoughts." ”

Dai Shan said: "Then give Li Zhaoji 100,000 taels a day, and let the relatives of the Eight Banners in the city persuade Duoduo." ”

The cane in Dai Shan's hand hit the ground a few times, threw such a sentence, and chose to leave, and Zilharang immediately retreated. Bumu Butai shook his head helplessly, asked Su Mo'er to take Fulin to rest, and then said, "Sony, you bring a few reliable minions at night and order Duoduo's house." This will make him make up his mind more quickly. ”

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